Wine Jobs: Restaurant & Hospitality

A wine career in the restaurant and hospitality industry can be rewarding for those who enjoy serving others and educating the public. Wine directors, or certified sommeliers, are the resident wine experts for their hotel, restaurant, or business. They are in charge of ordering, storing and serving wine.

Sommeliers must taste hundreds of wines a year to create a robust and relevant wine list that changes regularly. Often, they must educate their staffs, including servers, about the wines and how they pair with various dishes. They also deal with the public, helping customers to navigate a wine list and select the right wine for their meal.

There are many educational avenues to pursue a career as a sommelier. To become a certified sommelier, you can pass the oral and written first level of the Court of Master Sommeliers. Founded in 1969, the London-based Court is the best known and most reputable of wine service educational organizations. The exam, in addition to numerous preparatory courses, is available at culinary schools around the country, including the Culinary Institute of America, which has campuses in Napa Valley and New York.

The intermediate and advance tests require memorization and experience serving wine. They must be passed before a candidate is eligible to take the final exam, which has a 97 percent failure rate. There are currently 160 master sommeliers in the world. More than half are Americans.